A UE may be required to report certain information to a network in accordance with a measurement configuration provided by the network. For example, in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) environment, a measurement configuration may be provided by the E-UTRAN, and may use dedicated signaling such as an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message when the UE is in an RRC_CONNECTED state. The measurement information may be provided to facilitate handover when the UE is approaching a cell boundary or may be used for other functionality including automatic neighbor relations functions.
Using Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) E-UTRAN specifications, the measurement information may be provided based on measurement objects. Measurement objects are objects on which the UE performs measurements and, in some embodiments, are restricted such that only one measurement object exists for a particular frequency.
For measurement of LTE and Universal Mobile Terrestrial System (UMTS) systems, only one frequency is assigned per measurement object. However, for measurement of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), a plurality of frequencies may be assigned to a single measurement object. In some embodiments up to 32 frequencies may be assigned to a single measurement object for GERAN networks.
The use of a plurality of frequencies for GERAN may be problematic in cases where the network requires specific information for a specific frequency. For example, if a GERAN network has a measurement object which measures 3 frequencies and finds a new cell, as reported through a Physical Cell Identity (PCI), the network may require the Cell Global Identity (CGI) for the new cell. However, if the network utilizes the measurement object, ambiguity may occur since the measurement object relates to 3 frequencies in the above example. If the PCI is reused between these various frequencies then the request for a CGI related to a PCI may be ambiguous at the UE.
In order to remove the ambiguity, the measurement object may be reconfigured. However, this causes significant overhead with regard to signaling, and complexity with regard to both the network and the UE. Further, the reconfiguring of a measurement object may cause the discarding of certain information required by the UE with regard to the measurement object, such as a list of cells which have triggered a certain measurement report, which may lead to degraded system performance.